Post navigation

A Hong Kong iPhone 5 look-alike is positioned to beat Apple to market, minus one very important feature: iOS.

by Amanda Kooser

ou can wait around like everybody else, languishing in a long line at the Apple Store, or you can zip over to Hong Kong and pick up an iPhone 5 well before everybody else. Sounds great, right? There’s a catch.

The iPhone 5 you’re getting may look like it matches all the leaked information of Apple’s upcoming smartphone, but dig a little deeper and you’ll notice some differences. Like Android. In a bizarre mixture of technology rivals, the phone is called the Goophone I5.

Details are sketchy on this look-alike, but it definitely cops the two-tone back look expected for the iPhone 5. Despite hints that the iPhone 5 could grow in screen size, the Goophone version comes with a 3.5-inch display.

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The next few weeks will feature an array of announcements for new smartphone devices, as manufacturers work to get their latest and best devices in place to compete with the juggernaut expected from Apple Inc.’s next iPhone.

The new devices are expected to boost smartphone sales to a record quarter in the final three months of the year, though analysts wonder if upstarts like Microsoft Corp.’s MSFT +0.07% Windows Phone will be able to make headway against the powerful dual-block of Apple AAPL -0.20% and Google Inc. GOOG +1.59% , the latter of which owns the Android operating system that has become the top-selling smartphone platform in the world.

“At this point, we’re looking at iPhone as the big volume mover,” said Ramon Llamas of IDC, who added “it’s hard to bet against that.”Continue reading →

PHILADELPHIA — Wonder Woman and Superman are an item, locking lips in a passionate embrace as the pair realize that there’s no one out there like them.

The couple’s kiss is the culmination of a dramatic story in “Justice League” No. 12, which marks the first full year since DC relaunched its stable of heroes with new stories, new costumes and revised origins.

DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee, who has drawn each issue of “Justice League” since its debut, called the canoodling in Wednesday’s issue not a stunt or an alternate reality smooch.Continue reading →

The Apple [AAPL] decision to dump native YouTube support from iOS 6 is utterly inevitable as the company continues to punish Google [GOOG] for what Cupertino’s executives see as that firm’s duplicity regarding Android and the iPhone.

‘Special’ friends no more

There’s no doubt the relationship between the two companies has changed. Friends no more it seems unlikely anything more than a partial detente can ever emerge between the two.

The latest twist in the transmission sees Apple’s most recent iOS 6 beta abandoning the dedicated YouTube app. “Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended,” Apple said in a statement to The Verge.

“Customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.” The app will remain within iOS 5 and earlier and Google says it will introduce its own apps for Maps and YouTube. It’s also possible Google and not Apple terminated this deal.Continue reading →

SHANGHAI—DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. on Tuesday signed plans with Chinese partners to build a $350 million movie studio in Shanghai to capitalize on the success of its Kung Fu Panda film franchise as the studio looks to build up its presence in a fast-growing Chinese movie market.

The studio will be 45% owned by the California animation company, with the remainder held by media-related companies controlled by the Shanghai government. The partners also plan an entertainment zone that could bring the total investment to 20 billion yuan (US$3.14 billion) to be largely funded in China.

The foundation of the project is the animation studio, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg said in an interview. “The talent must exist here in China if only they had the knowledge, training and opportunity,” he said.Continue reading →

Virtual reality got a bad reputation in the early 1990s. Proponents overpromised and underdelivered, with crummy graphics and headache-inducing headgear — not to mention prices that were so stratospheric, there was no way anyone could afford to buy a system.

It was a technology that became an afterthought — until game design guru John Carmack took an interest, at least. During the E3 conference in June, Carmack showed off the Oculus Rift headset, a virtual reality device he helped to create using (no joke) Oakley ski goggles, duct tape, and spare miniaturized rocket parts he had lying around his shop.Continue reading →

BEIJING—Lenovo unveiled a lighter, quicker ThinkPad notebook computer on Monday to appeal to customers who like the convenience of tablets and smartphones.

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon will go on sale later this month, the Chinese computer maker said.

Lenovo Group acquired the ThinkPad brand with IBM Corp.’s personal computer unit in 2005. Lenovo passed Dell Inc. last year to become the second-largest PC manufacturer after Hewlett-Packard Co.Continue reading →